“The Poetical Works of Sir David Lyndsay of The Mount, Lyon King at Arms under James V., with Prefatory Dissertations, and a Glossary. Three vols., crown 8vo. 1806. Longman and Co.”
This edition was the work of George Chalmers, a well-known Scottish antiquary, whose greatest work, “Caledonia,” displays much research and learning.
“Historical Enquiry respecting the Harp in the Highlands of Scotland, 4to. Edinburgh: A. Constable. 1807.”
In regard to this work, reference has been already made (p. 36) to a letter of John Murray to Constable, in which the beauty of the typography is praised.
“An Account of the Life and Writings of James Beattie, LL.D., late Professor of Moral Philosophy and Logic in the Marischal College and University of Aberdeen. Including many of his Original Letters. By Sir William Forbes of Pitsligo, Bart., one of the executors of Dr. Beattie. Second Edition. Vol. I. Edinburgh: Printed for Arch. Constable and Co., Edinburgh; Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, T. Cadell and W. Davies, and John Murray, London. 1807.”
James Beattie (1735-1803) first published a volume of poems and translations in 1760, which he afterwards tried to suppress, though the book had been favourably received. The work which brought him most prominently into notice was “An Essay on the Nature and Immutability of Truth,” written to refute the scepticism of Hume; and it also gained him a Government pension of £200 a year. “The Minstrel” is Beattie’s best poem, and it will continue to be read when his philosophical productions are forgotten. His poems were again printed at Paul’s Work in 1854, in Nichol’s “British Poets.”